Air strikes on Syrian Islamic State city kill 8

Associated Press

Updated 4:16 pm, Friday, November 27, 2015

BEIRUT — A new wave of air strikes on the Syrian city of Raqqa, the headquarters of the Islamic State and the focus of an international military campaign, killed at least eight people, including five children, Syrian opposition groups said Friday.

The strikes came as France’s foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, declared that destroying the Islamic State headquarters and “neutralizing and eradicating” the extremist group is the main objective of the international campaign.

It wasn’t immediately clear who carried out the latest air strikes.

The city in northern Syria is the group’s de facto capital and has become the focus of international air strikes in the wake of the Paris terror attacks and the bombing of a Russian jetliner over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Islamic State has said it was behind both attacks.

Those developments have turned the world’s attention to the fight against the group at a time when the international community is trying to engage Syrians in a diplomatic process that would lead to a political transition in the war-ravaged country.

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That process faces enormous hurdles, including the fate of President Bashar Assad and agreeing on which armed factions should take part in negotiations.

Speaking in Moscow at a joint news conference with the Syrian foreign minister Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday that peace talks for Syria cannot go ahead until all parties involved agree on a list of which groups should be listed as terrorist and which as legitimate opposition.

“Vienna talks cannot go ahead productively without such a list of terrorists and a list of opposition groups,” Lavrov said,

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem scoffed at those who call on Assad to step down, comparing them to “those who dream of the devil in heaven.”

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